Reaction to Syracuse's move to tax churches no longer used for religious purposes

Elizabeth Case-Carter /The Post-Standard ST. PETER CHURCH on James Street is one of three vacant Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse properties Syracuse’s city assessor has put on the tax rolls.

Empty church should be taxed
To the Editor:

Property taxes are what helps keep our city schools afloat and provide needed services for city residents. When a church is closed and is no longer being used as a church, I think the city’s policy of considering it taxable property is appropriate.

When the Syracuse Diocese closed St. Andrew the Apostle in January 2009, the doors were locked, chains applied and the diocese made it clear to the members of the parish that we could no longer use it for Sunday worship. The building has been empty until recently, when it was leased to a Pentecostal church that plans to purchase the building.

While it might be difficult for some to think of taxing a church, as our diocese has reminded us, a church is not a building. The church is the people. When a building no longer meets the requirements for tax exemption, it should be taxed to provide the services (schools, water, fire) we all depend on.

Peter Wirth-Tretler
Fayetteville

Treat vacant churches as businesses treated
To the Editor:

Your Feb. 23 article on the efforts by the city of Syracuse to tax vacant church property suggests that the town of DeWitt should put St. Mary in Jamesville on the tax rolls. The building is essentially locked up and unavailable for worship or anything else.

As a town resident as well as a Roman Catholic disgusted by the former bishop’s cavalier disdain for small but viable congregations, I encourage my town officials to treat church-owned property serving no religious or humanitarian purpose the same way we treat a vacant residence, store or industrial plant.

Mark Monmonier
DeWitt

Church properties belong to nonprofit entity
To the Editor:

This letter is response to the Feb. 23 front-page article on the taxation of the Catholic Church property, or any church for that matter. The almighty dollar means more to City Assessor John Gamage than the Almighty himself. The properties, even when empty, still belong to a nonprofit entity. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse and Catholic Charities provide an array of volunteer free services, food banks, shelters and counseling to name a few.

I wonder what Bob Congel is offering the city for that empty mass of concrete they call a Carousel expansion. It is certainly worthy of being on the tax rolls before taxing the church. A few days ago there was a four-page listing of tax delinquent properties in the city. Most of these are repeat offenders. Gamage should put his office to good use and collect from all of these before taking on the Catholic Church. Then maybe he can call himself a Christian again.

Richard Shepardson
Syracuse

Render to Caesar that which is Caesar’s
To the Editor:

Re the city putting closed churches and schools on the tax rolls:

Perhaps the owners should recall Mark 12:17: “Jesus said to them, ‘Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.’” Romans 13:7 may be even more germane: “Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed ...”